Monday, January 12, 2009

Larry Evans - Pastoral Care Pastor

What a change! I am enjoying Hope Fellowship. I’m the “other” Pastor Larry, the Pastoral Care Pastor. I am doing what I love. I believe that pastoral care ministry is where the “rubber meets the road” in ministry. It is really where people are. I have been at home (I mean at Hope) for about six months. I’ve learned to love this place so much. It’s changing. Every week we change on the outside and on the inside.

I have learned that in this life there is one thing that is consistent: CHANGE. Every day we change. Paul wrote that from glory to glory He is changing me, into His likeness and image to perfect me. I’m kind of new to all this technology and stuff. I mean, a year ago I had no idea what a blog was, and now… I’m writing one. I am changing.

Change is often not easy though. Sometimes change is difficult and causes us to move out of our “comfort zones”. My son, Justin, wrote and recorded a song about our comfort zones. The song declares, “Lord, make my comfort zone uncomfortable.”

God brings about change in two ways: (1) He changes circumstances in our life, and (2) He changes me.In Jeremiah 18, the Word says: “The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, go down to the shop where clay pots and jars are made. I will speak to you while you are there. So I did as he told me and found the potter working on his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so the potter squashed the jar into a lump of clay and started again. Then the Lord gave this message: O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.” Jeremiah 18:1-6

When God changes me, he sometimes has to squash me in order to make me right. Have you ever been squashed? It doesn’t feel good. It hurts! Who likes to be squashed? Not me. It really is important to realize that God isn’t mad at me when I get squashed. I have always been hard headed and stubborn. I get used to doing something a certain way and it is hard for me to change. I get familiar with the road I’m going down and I don’t want to go another way. God has to squash me sometimes to change me. The process of change is painful at times. God has to squash me to make me over again. God wants to make me better. Do you feel like you have been squashed? From one lump of clay to another, I want to encourage you to stay on the wheel. God is up to something good. It is only as we remain still can God re-make us. Remember Jeremiah 18, “As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.”